§4103 Regular Assessment of Unmanned Maritime Systems to Support National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Missions

Summary

Require the NOAA Administrator, working with the Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the Assistant Administrator for Marine and Aviation Operations, and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, to regularly check publicly and commercially available unmanned maritime systems to see if they can help NOAA missions. One assistant must check if the systems can meet science data needs (suitability, feasibility, cost). The Director must check if the systems are operationally reliable, feasible, and cost‑effective for making required observations. They must work with the Unmanned Maritime Systems Ocean Technology Coordinating Committee, other NOAA offices, researchers, and system developers and makers to do these checks.